Panasonic's tiger-resistant laptop

By Brian Caulfield
Forbes.com

BURLINGAME, Calif. — Call it the James Bond of laptops.

We dropped the Panasonic CF-30 "Toughbook," kicked it, stood on it and tried to back over it with a Volkswagen JettaTDi. (That left a mark--on the pavement.) We poured Diet Coke on the keyboard. Then we used the lid to crush the can.

You might think this is unnecessary testing for a laptop. Advertising is always brimming with over-the-top claims. We've heard about "durable" notebooks before. But the ones we lug to press conferences seem to be as touchy as a bunch of squirrels. Surely, Panasonic's claims of toughness are, well, over-the-top. We found, however, that Panasonic's Toughbook performed as promised. Fair enough. So we came up with some tests that were decidedly unfair.